Principles for Designing 3D Learning Environments

In yesterday’s Train for Success in-world seminar, I was asked about the principles for effective design for 3D learning experiences, here is the list of principles that can be applied to make a 3D Learning Environment (3DLE) successful.

Principles for Effectively Designing a 3D Learning Environment

Instructionally Grounded. Irrespective of whether the 3DLE is a part of a larger blended intervention or a stand-alone entity, it is essential to ensure that the learning intervention is addressing a vetted business need, and that the learning objectives within the intervention are optimally tuned to address that business need. The 3DLE must be based on sound instructional design principles.

Reflectively Synthesized. Given the experiential and collaborative nature of 3DLEs, the need for self-reflection and group-based synthesis of the experience should also be core to the design. The design of 3DLEs, should allot time for both instructor review of the application of the skills taught, and peer-to-peer review of actions taken and results achieved.

The Experiential Principles. The environment that is created must be optimally suited to allow the participants to experience and internalize the learning objectives in a visceral way. The learning must be experiential and not transactional.

Participant Centered. The participant (not the teacher) should be positioned at the center of the learning experience. In a 3DLE the participant has agency: their actions and interactions have consequential outcomes within the learning experience itself.

Contextually Situated. In a traditional classroom setting, the learning context is pre-established. The participants are faced with an instructor, a projector, and a whiteboard. There is very little contextual variation from classroom to classroom. The content itself may change but the classroom context and its associated technological affordances are relatively static. In a 3DLE, the opportunity to create an immersive environment mimicking the actual environment in which the work occurs is possible and preferable. The opportunity exist to create a “simulator” of the actual work environment and to work and learn within that simulator to practice the application of skills and knowledge.

Discovery Driven. Establish motivation for sustained and engaged interaction within the 3DLE and a great way to do this is to make the learning discovery driven. To help establish a sense of engagement and flow for participants, Instructional Designers should create 3DLEs that selectively reveal information and incentives over time. Providing the right level of strategic ambiguity or ill-structured problems within the situational context incents participants to become more engaged in the flow of the 3DLE. In establishing a set of minimal guidelines and allowing participants to become actively engaged, discovering cues and clues along the way, Instructional Designers can sustain participant motivation within the 3DLE.

Action Oriented. At its core, experience is rooted in action. The success or failure of a 3DLE hinges upon the actions and interactions of participants as they engage in a series of episodic activities designed to surface teachable moments that synthesize the learning objectives associated with the intervention. 3DLEs are situational and problem-centered as opposed to being objective-centered.. In 3DLEs the learning is not separated from the doing. In 3DLEs, learning is a natural outcome of having engaged in an activity.

Consequentially Experienced. Learning is an iterative process. Trial and error is core to the development of professional competence. The old adage “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again” is foundational in both instructional design and professional development. In mastering any profession, novices move back and forth between action and reflection as they develop from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence, to conscious competence, ultimately achieving the mastery level of unconscious competence. Trial and error must be embedded into the 3DLE. Participants should be required to demonstrate their ability to perform a given task or challenge, that they experience the consequence of their actions in carrying out that task, and that they are provided feedback related to the task to allow them to improve their performance on subsequent iterations.

Collaboratively Motivated. Learning and collaboration are team sports. 3DLEs naturally enable participants to easily work together to achieve goals and learn from each other through collaboration. The instructional design approach must be based on collective experiential sense-making.In 3DLEs learning shifts from structured teaching to social and situated peer-to-peer learning. Participants are simultaneously consumers of, and contributors to, the learning experience.